- Case
Withdrawal of an article
We received a manuscript for consideration for publication in one of our journals (Journal A). During the peer review process we became aware that the manuscript had already been published in another journal (Journal B). When we asked the authors about this they said that they had asked the other journal to withdraw their manuscript before publication but this had not been done. We rejected the… - Event
COPE Lightning Talk: AI
…Marie was elected to the COPE Council in 2020. Dan Kulp, COPE Chair Dan fields the questions as we open the main part of the event to the audience. Dan has been in scholarly publishing for over 27 years, most… - News
Letter from the COPE Vice-Chair: May 2020
…author list after submission (27%); ghost, guest, or gift authorship (19%); and submission without the knowledge of one or more authors (19%), to name just a few. Just a reminder that, as a COPE member, the Forum is a great way to share your thoughts and perspectives with fellow editors and publishers. The next… - Case
Possible plagiarism and fabrication
…sentences and wording as the first. This concerns all parts of the paper. The only significant “new” sentences, mainly in the discussion, are on the role of drug C. 2. The second paper cites 27 references, 17 of which are identical to the references in the first paper. Of the 10 “new” references, six are on drug C, and two on issues related to the surgery. 3. Demographic and surgical data, reported as… - Case
Should we retract a published paper with a high similarity match?
The journal published an original article in 2022. Recently, we received feedback from a third party that the paper is similar to the authors' other work published in 2019. The duplicate rate of the initial submission was 31% and the final version was 24% which is within the journal’s standard. The concern was that the paper may not add value as the authors have already published similar resear… - Case
Image manipulation case
A journal was contacted by a non-anonymous whistleblower pointing out problems with two figures in a published paper. The journal wrote to the authors, who provided them with films for the gels and an explanation and additional figure data for the histology image, where a mistake was made when assembling the images. The journal published an erratum and informed the whistleblower. Subsequ… - Case
Question of paper retraction due to proven fabricated data
…errors in the trial call the study’s reliability into question. Provides transcript of relevant court ruling. This makes it clear that the author became an expert witness in February 2007, after publication of paper but before submission of the letter. He clearly became an expert witness on the basis of the study. Transcript says that author acknowledges inaccuracies—11 of 27 patients who originally… - Case
Conflicts of interest, corrections, and student research
A journal usually publishes one student essay each issue. In a recent issue it published a student essay in support of a controversial but lucrative set of interventions. The paper declared no conflicts of interests and only listed two names in the acknowledgements section without describing their role in the manuscript. The author had been studying an MSc when the first manuscrip… - News
WCRI 2019: Responsible authorship panel
…include: questionable changes to author list after submission (27%); submission without knowledge of one or more authors (19%); claims of unacknowledged authorship (21%); ghost, guest or gift authors (19%); disputed order of authorship (7%); and forged paperwork (7%). An analysis of one case was presented to illustrate the complexity of competing claims, unresolved investigations, and legal issues faced… - News
In the news: April 2020
…-humanities-why-open-science-in-the-humanities-is-not-enough/" target="_blank">https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2020/02/25/open-humanities-why-open-science-in-the-humanities-is-not-enough/ China Chinese Research Policy for STEM research and higher education. - News
Editor to Editor support for Journal Management
…topics that we have addressed (see http://naepub.com/?s=social+media). See in particular the article “INANE Editor Best Practices” (Miller and Burke 2017) Guidelines for specific editorial functions. INANE guidelines serve as a vital resource, raising… - News
In the news: October 2020
…-retroactively-change-their-names-on-public-records/" target="_blank">change their name on prior publications. In an editorial, the LA Times chronicled its history of racism, apologised for it, and vowed to do better. Transparency A global first as UK seeks to get - News
Letter from the COPE Chair: November 2020
…an international discussion on predatory publishing hosted by InterAcademy Partnership (IAP). We will update you on the outcomes and any publicly available documents from these sessions. I also made a COPE presentation to a large group of medical editors on inclusivity and diversity for Wolters Kluwer on 27 October. And… - Case
Withdrawal of acceptance based on potentially unconsented data
Two papers were retracted (without dispute from the authors) after a lengthy investigation. It was discovered that some of the data used in these articles were gathered without participant consent for the study or for publication (no participants are identifiable). The investigation was conducted by a public body in the country of the authors, and the journal has been told that they will not be… Presentations
…href="/files/u661/COPE_Vancouver_Sept_09_v1_EW_27_Aug_09.pdf">Download PDF (175 kb) (uploaded 5 May 2010) Presented by Liz Wager At the International Peer Review Conference Vancouver September 2009 General introduction to COPE- News
In the news: January 2018 Digest
…="_blank">https://phys.org/news/2017-12-predatory-journals-solutions-corruption-science.html https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/12/05/illegitimate… - News
In the news: January 2019 Digest
…Journal management There has been much discussion of Plan S over the last month, especially since cOAlition S released their implementation guidance on 27th Novemberhttps://www.coalition-s.org/wp-content/uploads/271118_cOAlitionS_Guidance.pdf A selection of… - News
In the news: November 2020
…change. In this post, Stuart Read, Anne Parfitt and Tanvir Bush outline three provocations that researchers can ask as part of an inclusive research practice. Peer review 322 editors of high-impact journals across ecology, economics, medicine, physics,… - News
In the news: June 2021
…" target="_blank">why it is not enough to change the names only in the authors’ own papers. Preprints The co-founders of MedRxiv discuss the challenges around the increased interest in preprints during the pandemic, and where the balance lies between open sharing of research and… Terms and conditions
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